The Squeal of Fortune (also commonly known as the SoF) is a daily activity available to both members and free players, initially introduced on 28 February2012. Free players get one spin a day while members get two spins a day. The introductory task system must be completed or turned off for the button of Yelps to appear. The Squeal of Fortune resets every midnight UTC. Rewards include armour, weapons, xp lamps, coins, and other items, some as illustrious as godswords. Lucky equipment is untradeable and will be destroyed if you die and choose not to keep hold of it. The "lucky" is determined by the item's rarity and not the value. Spins can also be bought by players for real-world money.

Squeal of Fortune button

When a player logs in, there is a small interface in the middle of the game screen; this can be moved to wherever the player wishes to keep it. Click on the button of Yelps, the host, on the left side of the interface, to begin the activity. Not all items are available in every draw; it appears that players get a selection of 13 items, which always consists of one super rare item, two rare items, four uncommon items and six common items. The selection of items changes from spin to spin, but logging out and back in results in no change.

The list of items is shown in a line of boxes at the bottom of the screen, with the current selected item's box glowing slightly. Click the big green button at the right of the screen to stop the wheel. When the glow stops moving, the player receives that item. Due to the way the prize is drawn, the time at which the player presses the button, does not determine the loot gained. The loot is randomly generated the instant the green button is pressed. Because of this, players may instead choose to double-click the spin button and immediately end the spin animation instead of waiting for it to stop.

Please note that the wheel graphic does not indicate the chance of the wheel stopping on a particular slot. The chance of obtaining a super-rare item is significantly less than the 3 in 100 chance the wheel suggests.

When a prize has been chosen, players then get the option to claim the reward or to convert it to coins as of August, 2012 . The player does not get to choose where to place the item claimed; it will automatically go to the player's inventory or the player's bank depending on its type. Most rewards go to a player's bank (items such as rune platebodies, etc.), but experience lamps (small, medium, large and huge) go to the inventory, and coin prizes go to the money pouch. If a lamp is won and one's inventory is full, or another prize is won and one's bank is full, exiting the Squeal of Fortune interface and clearing an item will allow a player to claim the prize later by entering the Squeal of Fortune interface again.

When a rare or super-rare item is won, a message is broadcast on the world the player is on (except for lamps). It displays the name of the player and the item won in a short one sentence dialogue under "News:"

Due to an initially unannounced update on 2 April2012, Squeal of Fortune spins can be bought with JCoins, Jagex's microtransaction currency, and real-life money. This has caused controversy, as the update allows those with easy access to real world currencies advantages not allowed to those without such access. It is also possible to get more spins by collecting spin tickets, which are dropped by various monsters. The paid spins resulted in a gigantic amount of complaints in the forums.

Contents

Obtaining more spins

On 2 April2012, there was a game update allowing a variety of ways to obtain more Squeal of Fortune spins. When one of these bonus spins, called spin tickets, are received, are put into your inventory and can be added to your total number of spins by simply clicking on them. The ways to obtain more spins are listed below.

Note: when buying spins, it is important to remember that they expire in 6 months time. Spins that are obtained by other means do NOT expire.

Monster drops - F2P and P2P

Skilling activities - F2P and P2P

Spins also have a chance to be found while taking part in any type of skilling activity that gets you Shattered Heartstrange rocks. This means that training any combat skill would not earn you spins in this way. If your inventory is full, the spin ticket will automatically be redeemed for a spin, without replacing an inventory item, as a strange rock would do.

D&D reward spins - P2P

Spins can be awarded to a player through Distractions and Diversions. Each D&D will have a week at a time dedicated to offering one guaranteed spin, while the Troll Invasion will always award the player a spin since it's a monthly Distraction and Diversion.

Each week, out of the following D&Ds, doing the one that is listed in the Squeal of Fortune rewards screen will award that player an extra spin on the Squeal of Fortune:

Buying spins

Spins can be bought in groups of 10, 20, 40, 100 or 200 spins, with a bonus 5 spins being given for buying 20, a bonus 35 spins for buying 40 spins, a bonus of 100 spins for buying 100 spins and a bonus 250 spins for buying 200 spins.

Keep in mind that spins that are bought expire after 6 months. A maximum of $200 can be spent a day when buying spins.

Currency

10 spins

20 spins (with 5 bonus spins)

40 spins (with 35 bonus spins)

100 spins (with 100 bonus spins)

200 spins (with 250 bonus spins)

British pound

£3.50

£6.99

£13.99

£34.99

£69.99

US dollar

$4.99

$9.99

$19.99

$49.99

$99.99

Euro

€3.99

€8.00

€16.00

€39.99

€79.99

Australian dollar

$4.99

$9.99

$19.99

$49.99

$99.99

Canadian dollar

$4.99

$9.99

$19.99

$49.99

$99.99

New Zealand dollar

$5.99

$11.99

$23.99

$59.99

$120.00

Norwegian Kroner

27 NOK

55 NOK

110 NOK

275 NOK

550 NOK

Swedish kronor

30 SEK

60 SEK

120 SEK

300 SEK

600 SEK

Lithuanian litas

11.99 Lt

23.99 Lt

47.99 Lt

120.00 Lt

240.00 Lt

Danish kroner

25 DKK

50 DKK

100 DKK

250 DKK

500 DKK

Polish złoty

13.99 PLN

27.99 PLN

55.99 PLN

140 PLN

280 PLN

Quests

As of an update on 24 April 2012, the completion of quests give the player 2 spins for each. This does not apply for quests completed prior to the update. This includes all of the Recipe for Disaster subquests, the Rag and Bone man and Fur 'n Seek wishlists, and the Thieving Guild miniquests.

Special events

Current events

The Sizzling Summer event allows members, who are subscribed for the whole of August and September, to be awarded with an extra spin each day in both months for a total of 91 free spins.

Past events

The Mad May event of May 2012 gave an extra spin daily during the entire month and was the first event to give free spins.

Advertisements

When on the claim screen a free spin button may appear which, when clicked on, will make the player watch a short video ad then award one free spin. These ads do not seem to appear in the downloadable client, only when playing on your browser.

Coin convert

Every item on the Squeal of Fortune has the option to be converted into a predetermined amount of coins. Generally, this value is the same as the item's high alchemy value; however, items exclusive to the wheel convert into a set amount of coins with price increasing with rarity.

Controversies

On 2 April, 2012, Jagex added the ability to buy Squeal of Fortune spins with real money. This caused several controversies. Players became enraged by this new update and started a riot in Falador, world 66. Mod William posted a thread on the forums about this new update on the Recent Game Updates article, and within a day this resulted in thousands of negative posts by furious players demanding its removal.

Real World Trading

Many players view the ability to buy spins as a form of Real world trading, because the spins have the potential to give very valuable and desirable rewards, or hundreds of thousands of experience points. Jagex mods, such as Mod Moltare in Mod Mark's friends chat, have stated that buying wheel spins is different from buying gold or items from a third party, because the gold or items are not the third party's to sell but a first party's, Jagex, which differs from the valid legal principal of selling whatever interest one has in an item (even if it is no interest), thus the buying of gold is legal, but violates game rules and is cause for banning.

They claim that buying spins is not a form of RWT. Many players, however, disagree, saying that overall negative effect on the game is still the same, and cite Jagex's own policies regarding real world trading. Since the sale of spins violated Jagex's own rules on Real World Trading, on 5th April, 2012, Jagex changed their explanation for the rule against Real World Trading to make room for selling spins and other future content[1].

Player Reactions

Despite RuneScape's long history of fighting against real world traders, some players believe that RuneScape may soon become insolvent as Jagex is seemingly rewriting their previous rules.

Within the first week of spin-selling, over fifteen thousand players voiced their objections to the "Wheel-World Trading", and the "Steal Your Fortune" on the update thread or one of the hundreds of other ones. To put this number in perspective, most update threads receive only two to three thousand posts, most of which are positive or ambivalent. The fifteen thousand replies to the spin update are as good as entirely negative, with only one positive post in the first twenty pages. After one week of consistent player objections, Jagex locked the forum in which these objections were voiced, but opened a special Squeal of Fortune feedback thread later on.

Financial Security

If a member is paying by credit card, and the credit card information has been saved with Jagex, there originally was no identity verification between clicking the in-game "buy spins" button and confirming the transaction. This means that someone with unauthorized access to a RuneScape account could turn up to $200/day of the rightful owner's money into Squeal spins. Since there is no option to disable spin purchasing on an account, it is also possible for children whose parents pay for their RuneScape membership to spend their parents' money on Squeal spins without their knowledge. These issues have provoked accusations that Jagex is violating laws concerning customer data protection. Jagex has replied with reminders to keep your RuneScape login information secure.

Additionally, they changed their Terms and Conditions[2][3], effective 2nd April, 2012 to avoid lawsuits by adding a line in the Subscription section:

“

We reserve the right to charge you for any unauthorized use of your subscription by third parties.

”

It should be noted that anybody whose account existed before the Terms were updated were not alerted of this change. However, in the Terms and Conditions it states Jagex does not need to do this, and users are responsible to check for changes:

“

We may change these terms and conditions to reflect: changes in applicable laws; regulatory or security requirements; relevant guidance or codes of practice; technical alterations to Jagex Products; and to improve clarity and consistency. Please check the terms and conditions whenever you use a Jagex Product. If you are not a subscriber, we will treat your continued use of a Jagex Product as acceptance of these changes from their effective date as shown above. If you are a subscriber, we will treat you as bound by the changes on the first renewal date for your subscription after the effective date and so you should cancel your subscription (as explained below) before this renewal date if you don't like the proposed changes.

”

In any case, if Squeal spins are bought by an unauthorised third party, the issuing bank of the debit or credit card, and other payment providers such as PayPal, have facilites available to reverse charges for disputed transactions. As of a patch note update, however, the security around buying spins has been "tightened".

Gambling

As RuneScape contains no age verification (just asking if the user is at least 13 on signup), it is possible for children under the age of 18 to spend real money on the Squeal of Fortune.

Jagex has stated that since every spin on the Squeal wins an in-game item (even if only Cabbage or Fishing bait), and since there is no potential for real monetary return, the act of purchasing spins is not truly gambling. Many players maintain that such a low-value spin is functionally equivalent to a loss, and that a purchased Squeal spin therefore counts as gambling. Other players maintain that a loss is incurred when spins are purchased, and that with the hope for a rare item, the Squeal of Fortune becomes a form of lottery. Overall, the Squeal of Fortune is more qualified as a Big Six Wheel.

If a low-value spin is considered a loss, or if Squeal of Fortune is considered a lottery, then the act of selling spins would violate online gambling laws, and the act of selling spins without age verification would violate age restrictions on gambling in several countries.

Precedent

Many players have been concerned by the precedent that this sets for the future of RuneScape. These players maintain that once Jagex makes an update connected with selling items or experience for real world money, they will be more inclined in the future to make updates connected with real world trading, despite having promised in the past that microtransactions would never be added to RuneScape.

The former official Jagex policy on real world trading is as follows:

"We don't want players to be able to buy their way to success in RuneScape. If we let players start doing this, it devalues RuneScape for others. We feel your status in real life shouldn't affect your ability to be successful in RuneScape."

Jagex Response

On August 14, 2012, Mod Timo responded by giving this quote about the controversy surrounding the SoF and Solomon features: [1]

“

Some general answers from me (and I'll try to get some further answers/opinions on this as well):

Bots - We're working on it. Hopefully we'll have more information about this soon but I can't give you an ETA at the moment. It's definitely an issue that we are aware of and are focusing our energy on. ICU are a secretive bunch, but maybe we can get some more info out of them shortly.

Sof & Solomon - I see both of these systems as additional ways people can support Jagex and RuneScape while getting something back for it. Previously, membership was the only way to do so. Now, you can support us in any way you choose. Including not spending a single penny by playing the game for free! People may not like that others are spending money on cosmetic items or spins, but the fact is that lots of people are using both Solomon's Store and SoF. (Both for free and paying for them.) What some might see as 'pushing', we see as adjusting, balancing and changing for the better. You may not like these updates, but there is a large cross-section of the community who do even though they may not frequent the forums or feel like sharing their opinion publicly. This doesn't invalidate contrary opinions but it is important to look at not only what is being said, but what is being done in-game.

RWT - Any money we make off Solomon's Store and SoF goes directly back to us. It is as much real world trading as membership and selling t-shirts are.

”

— Mod Timo

Two weeks after Mod Timo replied to players on the forums about SoF and Solomon's Store, Mod MMG posted his response about the two features of the game in a news post on the homepage: [2] On the forums related to this post, Mod Michelle used Mod MMG's quote rather than him addressing his own post: [3] The forums had a mixed response on the message as well as some players wondering why Mod Michelle was using Mod MMG's quote. Along with speaking about the two features, he also spoke of another bot-nuke day appearing within the upcoming months as well as an update through graphics with HTML 5. Some players accused the message as being a way for Jagex to gain the trust back from the players who despise the two features while others praised it as being a great way to eradicate bots from the game as well as to improve it graphically.

Upon release of the update, an interactive wheel first appeared on the RuneScape homepage.

All of the lucky items received from the Squeal of Fortune have a grey tint compared to the original version in order to distinguish between the two.

The icon does not appear in the Duel Arena, in Stealing Creation or within Daemonheim's floors, but it does appear on the exit balcony when you leave a dungeon. The icon does appear in Clan Citadels, however you cannot access the tab to Squeal of Fortune in the citadel.

If a player's bank is full and you receive an item to be sent to the bank, a message will display over the Claim Item option Your bank doesn't have room for your prize at the moment.

All items found in the rare section can be found in the very rare section as well with the exception of a Large XP lamp. Just as the large lamp is the only item from the rare section not able to be in the very rare section, the Huge XP lamp cannot be found in the rare section.

Many players complained about the extreme low chances of receiving a decent prize when the Squeal of Fortune was initially introduced. For example, players weren't satisfied with the common rewards as they felt it would be better suited for free players. After an update, Jagex modified the reward rates and players would receive rare items ten times the normal probability. There were, for example, cowhides, fishing bait and feathers in the common slot, while the 1000 coins prize was only 25 coins.

If a member tries to spin on a free world, a message will display As a member you are eligible for improved prizes, so please play Squeal of Fortune on a members' world instead.

Contrary to popular belief, it has been confirmed that "Lucky items won on the Squeal of Fortune do not degrade."

Opening the Squeal of Fortune's interface does not pause game-ticks, so time limits for equipment and mini games are still imposed.

The small agility lamp and the small thieving lamp have been changed to the same gold colour of the medium and large lamps and they are the only small lamps of that colour.

There is currently a glitch that causes prizes to not show up after a spin. This can be fixed by clicking "Claim later" and reopening the interface.